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Backyard OG (ocean gallery) 24.3

#5546 of 5756 surf spots in the world · 🇺🇸 United States of America · Florida · near St. Augustine

Needs the right swell, wind is the enemy here, peaks in September.

Beginner
Backyard OG (ocean gallery), United States of America
Photo: Joseph Gage from Yorkville, IL, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
Surf score24.3 /100
Surfable days33% of the year
Clean days1% groundswell + friendly wind
Groundswell2% period 11 s+
Typical size0.5 m 1.6 ft median
Water22°C a rash vest or 2 mm

Best time to surf Backyard OG (ocean gallery)

The best time to surf Backyard OG (ocean gallery) is September, October, November. It rarely works. In September the water sits around 28°C, so pack boardshorts, and the typical wave is 0.5 m. The nearest airport is JAX (86 km) and the nearest town is St. Augustine (11 km).

MonthSurfableCleanSizeWaterSuit
Jan44%0%0.6 m16°C3/2
Feb38%1%0.5 m14°C4/3
Mar41%1%0.6 m17°C3/2
Apr35%0%0.5 m21°C2mm
May30%1%0.5 m25°Cboardies
Jun13%0%0.4 m27°Cboardies
Jul4%0%0.4 m28°Cboardies
Aug8%0%0.4 m29°Cboardies
Sep39%4%0.5 m28°Cboardies
Oct47%2%0.6 m25°Cvest
Nov62%3%0.7 m21°C2mm
Dec35%1%0.5 m18°C3/2

What is under Backyard OG (ocean gallery)

Eight kilometres out along its swell window the sea floor drops to 115 m, shoaling steadily over the last kilometres.

Depth 8 km out115 m
Depth 4 km out50 m

Measured, not estimated: NOAA ETOPO 2022 global relief at 15 arc-seconds, about 460 m per cell, sampled along this spot’s own swell window. At that scale the survey sees passes and channels; it cannot see a reef ledge, so nothing here is said about how the wave breaks.

Why 24.3

Seven parts, each normalised 0 to 1 and multiplied by its weight; the sum is scaled so the best spot in the world scores 100. Wave quality and what the spot does on its best days carry more than half of it, which is what separates this from a ranking of where the water is warm.

Wave quality 34.7%
7.5
Best days 22.4%
2.4
Clean days 18.4%
0.1
Consistency 10.2%
3.3
Season spread 4.1%
0.0
Water comfort 6.1%
4.1
Access 4.1%
3.7

The detail

Faces 96° with 47% open water around it. Friendly morning wind 74% of days. Mean peak period 8.0 s. Days over 3 m: 0%. On its best tenth of days it reaches 0.9 m, with a peak period of 10 s. Mellow days (0.4 to 1.2 m): 65%. Months that work: 1 of 12. Coordinates 29.811, -81.261 (OpenStreetMap).

What it costs to be here

Living here
€2,000/ month
typically €1,760 – €2,240
Rent, one bedroom€1,050
Groceries€420
Eating out€240
Getting around€140
Phone + internet€150
Renting by the month, cooking most days, local transport.
One month here
€3,900/ month
typically €3,430 – €4,370
Somewhere to stay€2,300
Eating out€820
Car, transfers, fuel€530
Data + extras€250
Short stays, eating out, a car or transfers.
49% cheaper if you live here instead of visiting

Estimate: World Bank PPP price level for United States of America (2025, United States = 1.00) applied to a fixed surfer basket, then adjusted for how remote the spot is. Your own number moves with the season and how you live.

Our own project · Sumba, Indonesia
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Sumba has eight spots in this ranking, the best of them inside the world top 50. A cabin is €11,500. The land it sits on is separate, from €6,500 (€9,950 oceanfront), on an 80-year lease that extends at the end. Water, septic and electricity are another €6,500, and furniture is on top, so a finished cabin lands around €28,000 plus the land, payable in instalments.

Eco Beach City is run by the same people as SurfRanking, so treat this as our own advert, not a recommendation. It is an off-plan property in Indonesia: take your own legal and financial advice before paying anything.

Spots nearby

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